


Welcome to the Wheat Field

by insanity_times_ten, JustAMusicAddict



Category: Original Work, Welcome to the Wheat Field
Genre: Books, Chaos, Emo, Gen, Insanity, Loads of references, Music, Theatre, Theatre Kids, bookworms, emo bands, found family (sorta), friends - Freeform, multiverse au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 15,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25038214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insanity_times_ten/pseuds/insanity_times_ten, https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAMusicAddict/pseuds/JustAMusicAddict
Summary: When eight friends are transported to an alternate dimension and placed in a house with only one rule, what kind of chaos will ensue?
Comments: 38
Kudos: 1





	1. Car Rides And Weird Forces

**Author's Note:**

  * For [everyone in the group chat](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=everyone+in+the+group+chat).



> Hey! Here’s the original work I was talking about, this chapter was mostly written by me, with some help from my friend Ashley.

“So where exactly are we going?” Joanna asked as she climbed into  [ the van ](https://www.google.com/search?q=white+11+seater+van&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=isvn&sxsrf=ALeKk03z_nBcKbNajBOKbTrSDHZmknE_9g:1593441804860&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjxs_6loafqAhUNbs0KHSsMAdsQ_AUoAXoECAwQAQ#imgrc=spEB1sHdZIUXHM) .

“I have absolutely no idea,” Ashley replied. “This thing just showed up in front of my house. It seems to be driving itself.”

Cailey and Madison were already sitting in the very back seat, having flung themselves over the other two rows of seating. “Jo! Come sit with us!” Cailey yelled. 

“Quite honestly, I would rather not have to throw myself into the back of a strange van, thank you very much,” Jo said somewhat indignantly. 

“Suit yourself. We’re playing Minecraft.”

“You two are literal children.”

“Technically, Jo, in the eyes of the law, you are still a child,” Ashley chimed in (with a haven’t you people ever heard of closing a gosh diddly darned door).

Jo rolled her eyes. Her friend was just under a year older than her and had recently turned 18, which she loved to rub in Joanna’s face. “Anyway, where’s this thing going next?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not driving it and thus have no control over where it goes.” As if on cue, the van began to move. It stopped again in front of Macy’s house and honked. 

“What in the world are you driving this giant van for, Ash?” Macy asked while trying to figure out how to scoot the first row of back seats forward so she could climb back.

“I’m not driving it,” Ashley shrugged. “And I think you’re just gonna have to throw yourself over the seat. I couldn’t figure it out earlier.”

“Ashley. Question,” Jo said. 

“I might be able to answer it.”

“Who in their right mind would get into a van that just showed up in front of their house without asking a single question?”

Cailey leaned forward. “To be fair, she was never in her right mind.”

The van began to move again (by this point, it seemed to be moving whenever it pleased), catching everyone off guard. The next place it stopped was Rachael’s house. It didn’t need to honk, as Rachael was outside (intentions unknown, but it can be assumed that it was for a fairly rational reason). Rachael, being a (fairly) rational person, knocked on Ashley’s window instead of just climbing in. Ashley rolled down the window.

“Wow, someone who actually questioned the presence of this van-” 

Jo coughed, “I have questioned this self-aware vehicle many times throughout this trip,” she said. 

“-and thought twice before throwing themselves into the backseat? I must be dreaming!” She turned around, looking Joanna in the eye. “Your issue is that you didn’t act on it.”

“I am a fairly rational person,” Rachael replied, somewhat gravely, as Ashley turned back around, ignoring the face Joanna made at her, “who does fairly rational things. You should know this by now.”

“And you should know not to expect me to know something by now,” Ashley retorted under her breath, opening her door.

“What was that?” Rachael was beginning to question Ashley’s every move.

“You get to pretend to drive now. Good luck.” Ash walked to the other side of the van and threw herself into the backseat, not thinking twice.

“Wait, where is the-” Rachael’s thoughts were interrupted as the van began to move again. The speed of the van seemed to increase with every additional person who got in, but maybe it was just in their heads. No one really had any clue what was going on by this point.

The van stopped abruptly in front of Bridget’s house. It honked once, twice, maybe even three times before anyone came out of the house. It was not Bridget, not the first time. Not the second time, either. The first time it was Calvin, who just shrugged and walked back inside. The next time it was Veronica who walked through the front door. She went back inside, but not before staring at the van in confusion (perhaps it was the words “BRIDGET COME HERE” painted in red on the outside of the van that caught her attention). Finally, Bridget came outside. She turned to go back inside, not wanting any part of whatever shenanigans were going to ensue, but by some unseen force was thrown into the shotgun seat of the van. Everyone kind of just stared at each other for a while, too shocked to ask questions and not wishing to anger whatever had thrown this insanity together.

The van began to move at a highly alarming speed, and at some point became airborne. Almost as soon as it lifted off, it was back on the ground, this time in front of a house no one recognized. A girl walked out from behind the house. No one recognized the girl…

...except for Jo, that is. “Nora Miller, is that you?” Jo yelled.

The girl, who has now been identified as Nora, stared at the van sitting in her front yard for a while, then walked toward it.

“I have two questions,” Nora began, “the first of which being  _ who are you people _ ?”

“I’m Ashley, that’s my sister Cailey in the very back, Madison is next to her, Macy is sitting next to me, Rachael’s driving, and Bridget refuses to speak to any of us. What’s your other question?”

“How do I know I’m not being kidnapped?”

“You don’t,” Madison spoke up, her voice was unusually even and ominous, but she ruined it by smiling.

“That’s awfully comforting,” Nora said, climbing into the van and throwing herself into the backseat, perhaps thinking twice.

The van did not take off this time, instead vanishing into the void. The group floated in nothingness for about five minutes, then appeared on a country road, surrounded on both sides by wheat. The van drove for what may have seemed like an endless amount of time before coming to a complete stop in front of a large farmhouse with a white exterior and a dark roof. The girls stared at the house in a mix of confusion and residual shock from when Bridget was yeeted into the van. 

Having enough of the silence, Ashley threw herself up to the front of the van and got out. She walked up to the front door of the house  **ever so s l o w l y** , not wanting to be flung back into the van. Taped to the heavy wood door was a note, which read:

_ Girls of the group chat whose name changes too much to be accurately named in this note- _

_ You have been tasked with the care of this house for an indefinite amount of time. The house has already been furnished to your comforts and is fully stocked with food. All doors have tags on them stating what is what. You can also refer to the enclosed map of the house if you wish. All the TVs in the house have Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Amazon Video installed on them. I will pay all expenses, including schooling and the bill for the credit card attached to the back of this page. There is only one condition: no one may die. _

The rest of the group (except Bridget, who had somehow fallen asleep) exited the van one by one and gathered around Ashley as she read the note. As she finished, she flipped the note around, taking the card off of the back and handing it to Rachael, who slid it in her pocket.

“Well, this should be easy,” Nora said.

“No, it won’t. You’re going to want to kill half of us by the end of the week,” Ashley replied.

Macy punched her in the arm. “Lighten up, would you? Let’s go check out the house.”

The currently awake members of the group filed through the front door. Not two seconds after the door closed, it was blown open again and Bridget was thrown into the front hall. She lay on the ground, awake and obviously jarred by the movement, before standing up, bracing herself on the wall.

“Let’s all agree,” Rachael addressed everyone, “to never anger whatever is doing  _ that _ .” Everyone nodded, too shocked to say much.

They explored the main level mostly in silence for about 20 minutes until a blood curdling shriek was heard from the kitchen. Thinking that someone had lost her head (sorry not sorry), everyone sprinted into the room. Ashley emerged from the pantry grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

“They gave us Kinni-Toos,” she explained.

“And that is a Good Reason™ to scream like you are being murdered?” Rachael just about exploded.

“Yes,” Ashley said, turning to find her room so she could hide her cookies. Everyone went back to searching the house (for dead bodies?) and all was well until-

“Holy crud! There’s a piano!” Jo shouted.

“Wait, really?” Cailey sprinted down the hall and into the music room. The two began playing “Heart and Soul” as loudly as possible.

Rachael appeared as if by magic. “One: you didn’t need to scream. Two: please stop destroying everyone’s eardrums with that blasted cancer song!”

“One: yes I did. Two: no,” Jo retorted, and she and Cailey went right back to playing the “blasted cancer song”. Rachael sighed and walked out of the room, realizing that she wasn’t going to be able to stop them.

The song played for what seemed like ages, audible throughout the entire house for maybe half an hour before the two girls were beckoned back to the main room to play a game with everyone besides Bridget, who was slowly making her way around the house.

That night over a dinner of pasta, Rachael said, “Guys, I know the note said there are no rules, but we definitely need some rules to keep us from killing each other.” Everyone murmured their agreement. “Rule number one: no swearing.”

“Oh, for the love of Pete Wentz!” Ashley cried. “Wait. Can we swear if a song we’re singing has a swear word in it?”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to stop you from doing that.”

“What are the other rules?” Madison asked. 

“Ummmm… no bothering someone while they’re sleeping, that’s just rude. I’m not cooking every night, the rest of you are gonna cook sometimes or we all starve. Anyone else got anything?”

“Whoever wakes up first gets to play whatever music they want at any volume,” Ashley suggested., though she looked as if she was trying to pick out which band to listen to first thing to annoy everyone.

“Don’t touch my tea unless you wanna die,” Jo growled.

“What if I want some earl grey-flavoured confusion?” Cailey prodded.

“I will have your head.”

“Um, okay, that’s grim,” Madison butted in. 

“I’ll have yours too if you touch my garlic bread. That’s just fair.”

“Don’t touch food that people bought for themselves,” Macy added. She and Ashley high fived as everyone slowly turned to stare at Cailey.

“What did I do?” Cailey began to blush.

“Nothing...yet. We all know you’re gonna steal the food meant  **specifically** for me and Macy,” Ashley explained. Both girls gave Cailey a pointed look as she shrugged.

“That’s fair. But no one can use my snickers creamer.”

“Are you buying it for yourself?” Rachael raised her eyebrows. 

“Yes.”

“Then no one else is allowed to use it. It’s that simple.” The rest of dinner was filled with idle banter between the friends. 

After a little while, Rachael stood up from the table. “As much as I’d love to stay, I’ve got some work to take care of.”

“Alright,” Jo said, “but we can’t promise that there will be any food left if you get hungry.”

After dinner, Jo, Cailey, Madison, and Nora disappeared, but judging from the racket they were creating, it was clear that they were back in the music room.


	2. Homesick But This Is Totally Fine And Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written entirely by my friend Ash!

Rachael decided to go find her bedroom, traveling up the stairs, flipping on lights as she went. Cautiously, she crept through yet another furnished common room on the second floor, keeping a sharp eye out for bugs or shadows waltzing in the darker spaces and behind chairs. She glanced at the sign on the first door, but it was labeled as “Macy”, so she moved to the next door, which read “Rachael”. She opened the door carefully, peeking through the crack as if to make sure nothing would pop out at her. 

She had been slightly on edge since she climbed into the van earlier that afternoon, but the group helped to ease her worries. Though she would never admit it, the note had scared her slightly. The ominous words rolled and twisted in her mind, “ _ You have been tasked with the care of this house for an indefinite amount of time”.  _ She wondered what that meant as she deemed the room safe, opening the door fully and flicking on the lights. 

Blinking against the light, she scans the room, slightly shocked. Boxes filled the room, each with her name on it, occasionally accompanied by other descriptive words such as “bed” or “walls” or “clothes”. 

Her feet seem almost glued to where she stood in the doorway, thoughts racing. Why would this person (if it’s even a person) know what clothing size she wore, or what books she liked, or even what bedding she’d want?

Almost afraid, she glances at the walls, and her fear is only confirmed by doing so. The walls are all the exact same shade of light brown that her walls were at her house. This revelation gives her enough adrenaline to move her feet, almost in a daze, toward the nearest box, barely paying attention to what’s written on the outside. Her fingers claw at the masking tape holding the two flaps closed.

It takes her several seconds to get it open, but for her, it had all passed in a blur of muttering incoherently and the smell of old cardboard. With trembling fingers, she slowly opens the box, squeezing her eyes shut as she does so.

Reluctantly, she reopens them, taking a deep breath as if to prepare herself for what she may find within the box’s contents. It takes her several more moments to process what she sees, but it hit her in the gut like a punch when the two pieces had fallen together.

She meant to yell for someone in the house to come up, or at least to see if her eyes were lying or not, but she remembered at the last second that they had all been eating dinner and playing around, so she decided against calling out, allowing the younger girls to have some fun.

She slowly lifts the book out of the box, biting her lip as hard as she dared to try to push down the small flame of fear as it spreads throughout her chest, as it danced along her arms and neck. 

“How did they get these?” she asked, the words almost lingering in her mouth but barely coming out as more than a whisper. The book that she held was a gift from her parents, the one that she would reread more times than she cared to admit. It became her favorite growing up.

She traced her fingers over the cover before opening the hard-back and reading the small letter that had been written there. She carefully put the book back into the box, as if it were as fragile as glass, before backing up against the wall, breathing deeply as she tried to fight off the overwhelming sensation of being homesick. After what seemed like an eternity, she gathered the strength to push herself from the wall and to wipe away the tears that she never realized had been trailing down her face. With one last deep inhale, she looked through the other boxes, trying to find one labeled as “bed” or “bedding”.

When she did find one, she pulled it onto the bare mattress in the corner of the room, opening it a little slower than she did with the other box. She had to look away when she realized that it was the same teal sheets as her other bedding. Forcing herself to unpack it, she had stood back up and made up the full-sized bed, sliding the pillowcases over the four pillows that she had been given and throwing the spare blanket over the duvet. 

Feeling slightly better and more “in charge” of the situation that she had found herself in, Rachael broke down the bedding box and reached for another. Halfway through opening it, she heard a scream coming from below, followed closely by a crash. She made it through another box when she heard someone walking through the second common room, so she poked her head out of her room to see who it was. Ashley was standing at the base of the stairs leading upward, looking over her shoulder at Macy, who had been standing in the door to her own room. Rachael smiled slightly at the younger girl before she started climbing the stairs to what she could only guess to be the third floor. 

She heard a small cry from the room next door also, and she could feel her heart breaking for the other girls who have to go through the shock and pain of finding all of their stuff in their respective rooms. It hurt to see her own belongings, packed neatly into boxes and stacked in a foreign room, but she could barely think about the pain that the younger girls who were still downstairs would feel upon finding their rooms. 

She decided to busy herself by finishing unpacking, moving mechanically as memories resurfaced with each box.

Nearly forty-five minutes passed before she heard the excited chatter of the other four as they climbed the stairs, talking animatedly about whatever it was that they had found on the main level. She watched as they passed her room, and she could hear them yell at each other about sharing rooms, but everything turned dead silent not five seconds later. Rachael didn’t hear another word uttered from them for at least the fifteen minutes it took for her to finish unpacking the final boxes, but she wasn’t paying attention too closely either.


	3. Roommates And Bugging The Neighbors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys it’s Ash, finally posting a chapter XD  
> Anyway, a couple of things that imma point out here to help yall a bit.
> 
> 1.) I BET yall are doing the ‘nfjfheskngksn’ in your heads when you see my sister’s name, but it’s pronounced Kayleigh. Kinda like Hailey but Kay instead of Hai  
> 2.) I’ll probably be posting mainly bc Jo has bad time management skills as you already know, but we’re going to aim for every Monday  
> 3.) If something’s linked, it’s a photo of whatever’s being described (such as the poster later in the chapter)  
> 4.) Jo and I obviously have different writing styles so if it goes from somewhat vague to extreme detail pretty quick, thats why.
> 
> Okay thanks for your time :) Enjoy this chapter!
> 
> EDIT: I realized that the link didn’t attach, I’ll try to fix that soon

Cailey didn’t quite know what to think about the boxes. She still had a lingering smile painted on her face from moments before when she saw that her and Madi were roommates, but the feeling of having a roommate daunted her and made her very excited at the same time. She couldn’t deny that she was ready for a change though, her room was across from her older sister, Ashley’s, room at their house and she couldn’t ever remember living anywhere else.  
“Ugh. Work,” Madison groaned from just behind her, shoving her way into the room where boxes with each of their names were piled up. She pulled Cailey into the room by her wrist, and she could see a bunk bed with an espresso frame and two bare, full-sized mattresses on it. Both girls barely glanced at the other before lunging to get toward the bed, racing to grab the top bunk. Cailey reaches the bunk first, launching herself up, not bothering with the ladder. She hit the top of her foot on the edge of the protective railing and wrapped both hands around it as she crumpled in a loose ball onto the surprisingly comfortable mattress.  
“Wow, these beds are really nice,” Madi comments, sprawling out on the bottom bunk. Cailey let out a strained agreement as she examined her foot. A little red, but not bad. No bruise, so her sister couldn’t make fun of her for yet another injury.  
Ashley had often made fun of her whenever she had hurt herself, be it falling off the bed to crashing her bike and everything in between. Granted, Cailey did tease her sister for her interests, but both girls knew that it was all lighthearted fun. Mostly.  
“Should we unpack then?” Madi piped up, tearing Cailey’s attention away from her thoughts.  
“Yeah. Someone’ll be in here soon yelling at us about how lazy we are if we don’t,” she responded, rolling her eyes as she crawled toward the ladder, swinging her legs over the side.  
“I don’t think anyone will, to be honest. It’s really quiet. They’re all probably going through their own boxes and sorting out whatever they all got.”  
“Fair.”  
Cailey walks over to the box closest to the bed once she’s on the floor again and tears open the top. She was shocked to find her light blue Harry Potter themed bedding folded neatly at the top. She faintly hears her friend opening up a box off to the side, closer to the center of the room.  
“Huh. well, I guess that doesn’t surprise me,” Madison said lightly, taking something out of the box with a sigh. Cailey looked at her shorter friend, confusion written plain as day on her face. They locked eyes and Madison looked mildly disappointed that Cailey didn’t share the same thought as she did.  
“We were essentially kidnapped,” she started with an exaggerated smile, “traveled an insane distance in seconds, then were taken to this giant… wheat field. It makes sense that this ‘entity’ would transport all of our stuff here too, doesn’t it?” her hands rested on her hips, giving Cailey a borderline impatient look as she nods. Both girls get back to unpacking after the exchange.  
They help each other make their beds, organize clothes, and put little toys and such on shelves. They laughed and talked about anything and everything, yelling to the other girls on the second floor every now and then and screaming at Ashley, who had turned very loud music on despite being told not to during dinner. Time flew by, and before either of them knew it, it was dark outside. Cailey pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time, which read 9:23 pm. She tossed the red phone onto the top bunk and looked around at her freshly furnished bedroom.  
“What should we do now, then?” Cailey asks Madison as the slightly older girl.  
“I don’t know,” she shrugs, walking out of the closet after changing into sweatpants and a school t-shirt. “Do you think anyone else is finished unpacking?”  
“Who knows. Let’s go bug Ashley. She’s probably done by now. She works fast when music’s going, and I’m very confident that she’s listening to Fall Out Boy.”  
Both of them file out of the room before realizing that they don’t actually know where her older sister’s room is at. They walk over to a door that sits slightly open on the other side of the room. Madison knocks on the wall by the door before pushing it open all the way, revealing Rachael helping Macy unpack.  
“Hey guys. How are you?” Macy asks almost immediately. Both older girls look at the pair standing in the doorway.  
“Pretty good,” Madi answers casually.  
“Where’s Ashley’s room?” Cailey chimes in after a second.  
“It’s upstairs,” Macy responds, taking two sketchpads out of a box and setting them on the desk against the wall.  
“Thanks.” Cailey and Madison made their way out of the room as Macy started singing the chorus to I Write Sins Not Tragedies very loudly, causing both her and Rachael to laugh.  
Cailey and Madison share a glace, both thinking about how stupid those two can be. Cailey can’t help but feel a surge of excitement. She’s trapped in a house with her best friends. How cool is that?! They’re all insane, but that’s okay because she’s pretty sure that a few people will take over and make sure that no one dies or hurts another too badly.  
The girls exchange glances before racing up the stairs to the third floor. Once they reach the top of the stairs, they hear music coming from the other side of the floor. She doesn’t recognize the artist until she gets to the door. Explode by Patrick Stump. Of course she’d be listening to him.  
“Hey!” Madi half shouts over the music. Ashley’s head shoots up and she smiles, then walks over to pause the music.  
“Hi! Wild, isn’t it?” she said, spreading her arms to show off her half decorated room. Posters hung on the wall, though some lay face up on the floor.  
“Yeah. Need help?” Cailey offered her sister. Ashley looked thoroughly offended, pressing a hand to her heart.  
“Don’t you dare. You’ll tear my poor posters in half.”  
“You know me so well,” Cailey mocked, wrinkling her nose.  
“I have lived in the same house as you for sixteen years. Of course I know you.” with that, she starts humming a song and goes back to hanging a poster on the wall. It’s an old Panic! At The Disco photoshoot. She can only tell, however, by the presence of four men instead of just Brendon.  
“Which photoshoot is that, Ash?” she asked, half heartedly curious.  
“2008 UK tour,” she said, flattening the edges of the smaller poster against the wall carefully. “Pretty. Odd. tour, back when Ryan and Jon were still in the band. You know, when their music actually meant something real.” Cailey sighed, she hated it when her sister said stuff like that, she always thought she was just showing off how much she knew.  
She usually agreed when Ashley said that pre-split Panic!’s music was more meaningful. Ryan Ross wrote it, she had learned, to make it deeper, twisting the words to tell a story in a way that Brendon Urie never could.  
“Yeah okay. Go back to your crappy music then. This is boring,” Cailey quickly grabbed her friend’s hand and bolted to the door as Ashley yelled at them about how Soul Punk is a great album and everything.  
Both girls laugh as they go back down the stairs and they decide to go steal some more food from the kitchen because why not.  
When they got down there, however, they heard Joanna singing and probably playing as well, so they had made sure to grab food and drinks quietly before sneaking back to their room.


	4. Slightly Less Homesick But HEY LOOK INSTRUMENTS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone, and happy Monday! Hope you enjoy this chapter (written by me with minimal help from Ash).

Joanna was slightly amused at the sight of a mostly-bare room filled with boxes. Her friend Nora, whom she hadn’t seen in ages, was going to be her roommate. She hadn’t shared a room with anyone since her sister had declared that they needed their own rooms, about five years ago. 

“There’s nothing in here,” Nora said somewhat dejectedly.

“What do you mean, ‘nothing’? Look, there’s bunk beds, a TV, a closet, those dressers, and-” Jo inhaled for dramatic effect- “all these boxes!”

“I guess we’d better get unpacking, then. Looks like we might be staying for a while.” Nora sighed.

“Oh, quit being so sad. I call the top bunk!” Jo scanned the room, looking for the boxes with her name on them, then ripped one open. Covered in bubble wrap was the entirety of her snowglobe collection, including one she thought she had lost years ago. She gingerly set that box aside to be dealt with later. The next box she tore open contained her bedding, from the grey sheets all the way to her Tempur-Pedic pillow. She threw those onto her bed and moved to the next box, which contained all her old notebooks and sketchbooks. That was when it hit her- this was  _ her stuff _ . Digging further into the box, she saw mementos from various camps she had gone to, postcards from friends, things that no one should have touched. And yet, here they were.

“Hey, uh, are you okay?” Nora broke the silence that had been lingering in the room like a heavy fog. 

Jo blinked and wiped away the lone tear that had begun to make its way down her cheek. “Yeah,” she said, taking a breath. “Yeah. I’m fine. Let’s just unpack what we really need tonight, and we can figure it out from there.” She busied herself unpacking clothes and putting them into one of the dressers and the closet, then with making her bed. She put the box of notebooks and postcards in the very back of the closet, not wanting to deal with the memories that had resurfaced when she first opened it.

Having finished all her tasks for the evening, she decided to go scope out the tea situation. She walked through the common room and heard various snippets of songs, some of which she recognized, others not. Upon entering the pantry, she didn’t see any tea. After a bit of looking, however, she saw a box of regular Lipton tea.  _ Well, _ Jo thought,  _ this’ll have to do for tonight.  _ When she turned around, she saw a figure standing in the doorway. Instinctively, she jumped back, scattering tea bags across the floor. “Oh, phew, it’s just you,” Jo said when she recognized Nora to be the form that startled her. 

“Yeah, it’s just me. You seem kinda off tonight, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine now. I’m just gonna make some tea and hang out in the music room for a while. Care to join me?”

“Yeah, sure.” Nora leaned against the wall while Jo made her tea, then the two made their way to the music room. On one wall hung two guitars, a ukulele, and a violin. A cello rested in a corner near the other instruments. 

“I don’t play the violin or the cello, do any of you?” Nora gestured to the stringed instruments. 

“No, not that I can think of. But I’d kill to learn,” Jo replied. 

“Well, here’s your chance.”

Next to the cello sat two rectangular cases, one with a tag reading  _ Rachael _ , the other’s tag bearing Jo’s name. Jo grabbed her case and opened it immediately, running her fingers over the smooth wood of her clarinet. She shook her head and put the case back where she found it. On the opposite wall were some shelves holding as many music books as possible. Jo searched and searched until she found just the right one. With its distinctive purple cover, the book could be recognized anywhere. Jo opened it to her favorite song- Heart of Stone. Jo’s confidence always flew through the roof whenever she sang as Jane Seymour, and she could only hope her fingers remembered the song as well as she thought. 

As soon as she played the opening chords, the room filled with the sound from the baby grand in the center of everything. Her hands were fairly large, which worked in her favor during Heart of Stone. Although her fingers usually stumbled over each other when she played intricate melodies, they pressed out octaves and four- or five-finger chords incredibly well. Her voice, although worn from screaming and chaos, darted between her warm lower register and strong head voice with samurai-sword-sharp precision. Her riffs were clean, and her voice combined with the piano in a way that could evoke tears from the most stone-hearted of onlookers. In fact, when she finished the song and looked behind her, she saw Nora struggling to collect herself.

“Well,” Nora began, “the piano works.”

“We’ve already established that,” Jo said quite matter-of-factly. “Now as for decorating our room… how about we get a bunch of playbills and posters? And I think we should get a karaoke machine as well.” Nora nodded, and the two spent most of the night finding as many Broadway posters for their room as possible. 

“Hey, Nora. Y’know what we could do?” Jo asked at around 11:30 pm.

“I honestly have no clue what you’re about to say,” Nora replied. 

“We could pull up YouTube on the TV and do karaoke that way.” Nora groaned. “Just until we get our karaoke machine! And I can almost guarantee that someone will come running in here once they hear the music.”

“What kind of stuff are we gonna play? Anything and everything or just showtunes?”

“I don’t know! Who all are we gonna want down here?” After a few seconds of silence, Nora gives an exasperated sigh and puts her hands on her hips. “Come on! I don’t know these people very well! Who’d be fun to do karaoke with?”

“Ashley and Macy I think. Mace will probably come down to sing Hamilton or Dear Evan Hansen but Ashley won’t come down unless we play some of her emo music, she’ll sing though.” Joanna nodded, thinking carefully but having little idea of what to play.

“So, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, SIX, and what, Fall Out Boy?”

“Yep. Should be fun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I was planning on letting you figure out who I was (and this chapter was gonna play a pretty big part in revealing my identity) but Ash had other plans...  
> Oh well. You people know who I am now. Nice.


	5. Karaoke And Pool Noodles And Sandwiches

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me? in charge of two chapters in a row? and posting them both (vaguely) on time? welcome to the fever dream i’ve been living in for the past five days. anyway, C H A O S.
> 
> EDIT: half of us are theatre kids. there’s gotta be at least one musical reference per chapter.

Rachael had been explaining why sleep was important for about half an hour now. “...and THAT is why you can’t stay up all night doing karaoke. Everyone got it?” she ended. Everyone stared at her in confusion. “Okay, did anyone hear what I just said?”

“I’ve been zoned out for the past two hours,” Ashley explained, and Rachael nodded understandingly.

“I got distracted halfway through…” Macy said, shrinking back in her chair.

Jo crossed her arms defiantly. “And I made the conscious decision to ignore you.” She held eye contact with Rachael, eyebrows raised, until the older girl grew tired of silently fighting with her.

“Fine. At least keep the volume down a bit so the other people in this house can sleep.”

“Dude, it’s impossible to listen to My Chem at low volume. It’s unnatural,” Ash claimed, crossing her arms.

“Then don’t listen to them late at night!” All this does is earn a glare out of the younger girl, which quickly melts into a small smile.

“Anyway, sleep is for the weak,” Jo said. “There’s  _ n-n-n-n-n-n-no way _ you can convince me otherwise.”

The other girls at the breakfast table looked at each other and nodded.

“Oh, no...” Rachael mumbled to herself.

Nora rushed over to turn out the lights in the kitchen. One by one, Ashley, Macy, Madison, and Cailey stood up on their chairs. 

“Time is a foreign concept,” Ashley began.

“Gravity does not exist,” continued Macy.

“Oxygen is overrated,” said Madison, stifling a laugh.

“And sleep is for the weak!” Cailey concluded.

Rachael and Bridget rolled their eyes. “Fabulous performance, ladies,” Jo said, “but Madi, we could do without the giggling next time. It’s supposed to be ominous.”

“I know,” Madison replied. “It’s just so  _ funny _ , though!”

“Selfish, child, very selfish,” Jo remarked, shaking her head in disdain. 

“God bless the sad and selfish!” Ashley shouted in a sudden burst of energy.

“Do I even want to know?” Joanna answered after a few seconds. Ash opened her mouth to start one of her usual rants, but Jo shushed her before she could even begin, so she decided to stick to humming out a melody, probably whatever song she was quoting.

Everyone hopped off of the chairs one by one, as though nothing had really happened, and the truth of the matter was exactly that. With two major forces of chaos in the house, this would become somewhat normal for the girls. 

The rest of breakfast passed without another “incident,” but shortly before lunch chaos struck again. Jo and Ashley had been exploring the house a bit further, starting with the basement. The two had found a stash of pool noodles and immediately had the same idea: a sword fight. 

Jo pulled out a purple noodle and held it to Ash’s neck, saying, “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.”

Ash responded by pulling a teal noodle from the box. “Inconceivable!” she yelled, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Rachael stuck her head into the stairwell leading into the basement. “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means,” she reprimanded playfully. 

“Where did you come from?” Jo asked. “Never mind, I don’t really care. I suggest that you stay away unless you wish to be slapped with one of these bad boys.” She hit the ground with her noodle for dramatic effect.

“I don’t know, I think I can hold my own against you two…”

“Bet!” Ash said, chucking an orange noodle at the older girl, who had come down the stairs. 

The three ran around the basement for a while in a simple game of cat and mouse, hitting each other with the noodles until Rachael yelled, “I need backup!” as soon as she got close to the stairs. Everyone else, excluding Bridget, who had locked herself in her room, bounded into the basement. Cailey stopped dead at the bottom of the stairs and turned around.

“Where’re you going, small child?” Jo asked.

“Anywhere but here,” she replied.

“You scared?” Ash teased. 

“This basement is creepy. It’s probably haunted.”

“Ew, you believe in ghosts?” Ash did not believe in ghosts, only demons.

“Ghosts exist!” Jo butted in. “Lots of people have seen them in the Tower of London. Heck, there’s ghosts  _ everywhere.  _ You just gotta know where to look.” She shrugged.

“You keep bringing that up, and yet you have no proof except what you’ve heard on Facebook.”

“Girls, girls!” Rachael interrupted, as she could see that Jo was poised to hit Ash across the head with the noodle. Or perhaps with her hand. Rachael couldn’t tell. 

“Where’re the noodles?” Macy asked, and Jo jabbed a thumb in the direction of the box, still glaring at Ash. Macy, Madi, and Nora grabbed their noodles, which were pink, green, and blue, respectively. Madi and Nora took Jo and Ash’s side, while Macy was the only one forming an alliance with Rachael, who looked dejected at the prospect of teams that were so uneven. Suddenly, a thump could be heard at the top of the stairs, and soon Bridget flew down the stairs and landed with a thud, thankfully on a rug and not the cold concrete.

“Nice,” Ash said as though this was nothing out of the ordinary. “Hey Bridget, Rachael’s team could use another person. Grab a noodle and come slap some people.”

“Gladly,” Bridget said. She was a bit annoyed because she was kept up all night by the karaoke party upstairs, and since the mysterious force was clearly up to no good today, she could take out some of her anger. Rachael tossed her another green noodle and the game continued, more aggressively this time. Ash and Jo were ruthless warriors, and Nora and Madi caught on quickly. An “out” system was implemented in order to keep people from getting their necks broken, not that that was going to happen, Rachael would make sure of that.

The game stopped briefly at one o’clock, about two hours after Jo and Ash first stumbled across the box of noodles. “I’m gonna go yell at Cailey,” Ash said, and raced up the stairs. A fair amount of bickering could be heard, and Ash reappeared in the basement almost as quickly as she left. 

“What did you tell her?” Madi asked.

“I just told her that she could either come beat on people with us or she could bring us food,” Ash replied.

“Good, I’m starving,” Jo said. The sword fight went on a little while longer, maybe fifteen minutes, before Cailey came down the stairs carrying a plate of sandwiches and one of those multipacks of little bags of chips. 

“Where should I set these?” she asked. 

“Uhh… just put them on top of that box,” Rachael said, vaguely indicating which box with a jerk of her head.

Jo got a sinister smirk on her face. “Hey, Ashley!”

“Yeah?” the older girl asked, having no idea what Jo was up to this time.

“Can I get a chip?”

Ash sighed. She should have seen this coming. After all, she was the one who introduced Jo to those videos. And now she was going to have to come up with some strange way to get a bag of chips to Jo, who was standing barely ten feet away. Then an idea hit her like a freight train. 

She grabbed a bag of classic Lays and her noodle, and threw the chips into the air. She swung her noodle as they fell, missing. She tried once, twice, three times more, before finally giving up and drop-kicking the bag. The room descended into laughter at Ash’s misfortune.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are things that were stolen from elsewhere and needed credit given to original creators because Joanna ignored me and put the chapter up herself. (We both worked on it and this way supposed to be my chapter but I got super busy out of nowhere so she finished it for me)
> 
> “n-n-n-n-n-n-no way” —No Way from Six the Musical  
> “God bless the sad and selfish” —Love, Selfish Love by Patrick Stump  
> “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.” “Inconceivable!” “You keep using that word. I do not think you know what it means.” —Princess Bride  
> “Can I get a chip?” through the end of the chapter were inspired by a series of little videos where Mikey Way asks Frank Iero for a chip and Frank Iero gives him chips in some bizarre way.


	6. Ash Gets A Knife, Chaos Ensues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys I’m back with another chapter and I think I’ll be posting again next week. Also, we decided like ten minutes ago to do chapter titles so here we are.

The next morning was fairly uneventful up until around eleven o’clock when Macy finally decided to stick her head out her door when she heard crashing coming from the floor below. After waiting for a few seconds she saw Ashley barrelling up the stairs, laughing and skidding through the sitting room between Macy’s room and the stairs. She noticed something in her right hand, though, as Joanna and Nora came chasing after Ash, yelling over each other, indistinctly.   
“ASH!” Macy yelled over the other two as the younger girl passed her. “What do you have?”  
“A KNIFE!” she yelled back, laughing as she almost tripped over her own feet.  
“NO! ASHLEY!” Macy launched herself out of her doorway and joined the chase.   
The three girls chased across the sitting room as she dove into her younger sister’s room, out onto the balcony that she shared with Joanna and Nora, and into the latter's room.   
“COME GET ME YOU COLD BOWLS OF SOUP!” Ashley screamed as she ran back into the sitting room and around to the stairs to the upper floor.   
The chase remained up until she cornered herself in a nook of the other side of her own bedroom, when she sank as far into the corner as she could, holding the knife close to her chest but still smiling widely. The other girls weren’t too far behind, and when they all caught their breath Joanna held out a hand expectantly.   
“Nah. i’m good,” Ash said in return.  
“Last chance,” Macy chimed in with an edge to her voice.  
“Chord?” Jo asked, a thin grin spreading across her face.  
“Chord.”  
“You wouldn’t,” Ash dared somewhat defiantly, but she did sound a little on edge.   
“I… sorry,” Nora began, “but what’s ‘Chord’?”  
“Chord is my electric guitar. They wouldn’t steal her!” Ash looks from Nora to Macy, biting her bottom lip, something she always did when she was overly nervous or excited.  
“Oh yes we would,” Jo chirped, turning from Ashley to Macy. “Go get her? She’s probably in her room.” Macy noded, chuckling as Ash started to sputter out about how she’ll steal her guitar back AND keep the knife.   
She skipped around the corner and into Ash’s room, which she hadn’t been in at this point. It was exactly what she expected, however. Posters on the walls, a grey stool with a record player on it, a stand with Chord propped against it and the fabric case folded neatly behind it. She picked Chord up gently and left the bedroom, walking around the corner to stand behind the group.   
“FINE!” Ashley said, perhaps a little too loudly, as she gave Nora the knife. Macy handed the guitar back to the owner and she ran off with it, probably to go put her up.  
“Well, that was the first disaster avoided,” Joanna shrugged once Ash was out of sight.  
“Yep,” Macy agreed. She had been friends with Ashley for longer than anyone else in the group, and she was certain that Ashley would have started throwing the knife at her door and potentially hurt someone, or herself, with it by accident.  
“I find it pretty amusing that she’s actually like this,” Nora said through a smile.   
The other two girls agreed with her, laughing, as Ashley came back out of her room.  
“You guys just don’t want me to have any fun, huh,” she commented, seeing the three girls laughing.  
“We don’t want you to kill anyone!” Joanna exclaimed.  
“Why not?”  
“You can’t wear that My Chem shirt in prison, Ash,” Macy pointed out.  
“And there’s no coffee,” Nora added.  
“No music. No Fall Out Boy,” Jo added, certain that that would be motivation enough.  
“Bold of you to assume I don’t have every Fall Out Boy song memorized,” she challenged. “But not actually listening to them… fine. I won’t kill anybody.” She faked being really upset before all four of them laughed about it.  
“I will still be using my scissors to carve a spear from that stupid wooden rod, though,” she added, almost daring the others to tell her no.  
“You do that, just don’t stab anyone,” Jo compromised.  
“Deal.”  
“Our stay here is going to be very interesting, huh,” Macy said after a few moments of silence.  
“Girl, me and Joanna are staying in the same house. Chaos will reign and showtunes and emo music will be playing at all times,” Ash said, which Macy had to admit was most likely going to prove true.  
“I don’t hear anything playing now, though,” Mace returned, unable to help herself.  
Both girls start speaking at the same time before Ash yelled about how she has the perfect song to play, and she whipped out her phone from her back pocket.   
After a few seconds of silence, she turned up the volume on her phone as a vaguely familiar opening riff started playing loudly.  
“Well if you wanted honesty that’s all you had to say,” Ash started singing and Macy recognized it from there.   
Joanna and Nora seemed to have gotten it right off the bat, which wasn’t surprising in any way because they all used to quote this song nonstop in their group chat. Macy had to admit, it was a pretty okay song, but it wasn’t really her taste in music if she were being completely honest.   
During the bridge to the song, however, Ash yelled something completely different than the other two. They both said “Trust me,” which was the actual lyric, but Ash screamed at the top of her lungs, “LIE TO ME!” and fell into a giggling fit which Macy and the other two joined, barely able to finish the song.  
“What the heck?” the quartet heard from behind them as the song finished out. They all turn around to see Rachael, Cailey, and Madison standing in the sitting room. Cailey was standing there with her eyebrows raised and looking at Ash, so Macy assumed that it was her who had spoken.  
“Yes, sister mine?” Ash said sweetly, and Macy had to stifle a laugh as she caught the reference to one of her favorite TV shows.  
“I hate you, first of all.”   
“Hate me, baby, maybe I’m a piece of art!” Ash sang abruptly, seeming to enjoy annoying her little sister.  
“Second of all, how dare you play that song again, you never shut up with that reference.”  
“Aw, come on Cailey. It’s a good song!” Madison cut in, chuckling.  
“You’ll change your tune after living with her for more than a week,” she said, rolling her eyes.  
“You’ll hate me but just remember that you love me, tall person,” Ash said nicely, throwing an arm over her taller sister. Everyone started laughing at the two sisters, and all that Macy could think was that she was going to enjoy living here with these girls, even though they are all very different in their interests and hobbies.   
She looked forward to living in the middle of this large wheat field, and she felt very at home as she laughed alongside six of her seven new roommates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CREDIT TO ORIGINAL CREATORS: 
> 
> “Well if you wanted honesty, that’s all you had to say.” Opening line to I’m Not Okay (I Promise) by My Chemical Romance.
> 
> “Trust me” said at the end of the bridge in the recording of I’m Not Okay by My Chemical Romance.
> 
> “Lie to me!” said by Frank Iero during a live show, I’m pretty sure it was after Gerard Way married Lyn-z Ballato before one of their shows, but as far as I know this has neither been confirmed nor denied.
> 
> “Sister mine” a play off of a line from BBC Sherlock where Mycroft calls Sherlock “Brother mine”. Me and my sister use this when we want to annoy the other.
> 
> “Hate me, baby, maybe I’m a piece of art.” Line from Tiffany Blews by Fall Out Boy.


	7. Lunch Is An Easy Fix, But Hey, We Have Something To Do This Afternoon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: Mentions of not eating properly  
> (Very brief but I don’t want anything to happen to anyone so this is a precaution. I have it labelled so you can skip over it, too)
> 
> I put this in both the summary and chapter notes so you don’t miss it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Mentions of not eating properly  
> (Very brief but I don’t want anything to happen to anyone so this is a precaution. I have it labelled so you can skip over it, too)  
> (This’ll prolly be one of the only mentions of this tbh, so the rest of the story should be pretty clear. Pls don’t worry, tho!! I’m fine I just don’t eat a lot until dinner bc I get sick when I eat and then get stressed out)
> 
> WOW LOOK AT ME AND MY HORRIBLE TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS!  
> Okay but I have an excuse- I have been messing around and gathering stuff for this since Thursday and planned to do a lot of writing Sunday afternoon but I was asked to pick up an extra shift so here we are.
> 
> ANYWAY! This chapter and the next are inspired by incorrectf0b on Instagram. An amazing account, seriously though go check it out if you can! The actual quote itself won’t be until next chapter since I had to cut this one short.

“LUNCH!”  
Madison sat upright on her bed, suddenly zoning back into reality at the mention of food.  
“I wonder who cooked?” Cailey wondered aloud, climbing down the ladder from her top bunk bed.  
“Rachael? Maybe Bridget. I dunno,” Madison shrugged, “I didn’t catch whoever yelled. I was too distracted by the word ‘lunch’.”  
“That…. is fair enough.”  
“I know. I’m arguably the most sane person in this group.”  
Cailey made a face like she was about to argue, but apparently had thought better of it and shook her head.  
“Yeah, I thought so,” Madison jabbed at her friend. “Let’s go downstairs.”  
“Let’s.”

Once the two girls had gotten downstairs they seated themselves at two of the empty spots at the large table, which was only partially filled. Bridget and Macy sat at the end closest to the wall, facing each other and talking quietly about something. Nora and Rachael were in the kitchen, carrying stuff toward the table and setting it in the center.  
“We should probably go help them, yeah?” Madison asked the younger girl. The only response she got was a shrug, however, as Cailey leaned her chair back on two legs, stretching her arms out behind her.  
Vaguely bothered by the response, Madison got up from her chair and joined the two older girls in the kitchen.  
“Need any help?” she asked, leaning against the counter with her palms.  
“Yep, grab those plates,” Rachael said, nodding toward two plates with three hotdogs on each, no bread.  
“Ash and Mace?”  
“You guessed it.”  
Madison walked back to the table, putting one plate in front of Macy and one in front of the chair next to her, assuming that that’s where Ashley would sit. Macy thanked her and she hummed in response. She then took her spot next to Cailey and stared at her own sandwich, which had been placed there while she was away. No one else was eating, so Madison assumed that they were going to wait for the only two missing people before eating.  
Less than a minute later, Ash and Jo walked down the stairs, both looking mildly upset with each other as they talked over each other. They take their own seats beside each other, not looking at the other.  
“What’s got you two all riled up?” Nora asked them, tilting her head to the side a little bit. Both Ash and Jo started speaking at the same time, but Nora held a hand up to shush. Cailey snickered and Madison kicked her underneath the table.  
“Ouch.” Madison raised her eyebrows at the younger girl before directing her attention back to the scene that was unfolding next to her.  
“Jo thinks that Magic is the cuter dog but Wolfie obviously is!” Ash started, pausing as she prodded at her hot dog with her fork.  
“Magic is the cutest thing ever, okay! Not that hard to understand!” Jo exclaimed, half glaring.  
“What’s in this?” Ash said, stabbing her food.  
“Just that. I only cooked it in the oven,” Rachael intervened before more arguing could take place. “Now, why don’t we agree to disagree? You both obviously have different tastes, and so your preferences will reflect that. Both dogs are cute, though.”  
“Fine,” Ash said, cutting her hot dogs into pieces.  
“Fine!” Jo added, taking a bite of her own sandwich.  
“That was deep, Rachael,” Macy said after a few seconds of uneasy silence.  
“It’s been known to happen every so often,” she returned, smirking. “I actually saw something like that online but I had to paraphrase because—”  
“SEE I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO STEALS QUOTES CAILEY!” Ashley shouted, causing Madison to jump a little bit.  
“Hush, child! No yelling!” Madi lectured her.  
“Sorry.”  
Everyone laughed after that and the group made easy small talk, talking mainly about music and musicals, though occasionally mentioning a project or whatever.  
“So what should we do for dinner?” Bridget asked and the group went completely silent for a minute.  
“Tacos?” Cailey suggested, shrugging.  
“Burritos!” Ash challenged, obviously excited.  
“OH! I saw this thing on Instagram where a group of people spread tin foil over a table and it was like the table was the dish and they had nachos that way. We could try that!” Joanna added, using her hands to try to get her point across.  
“Sounds messy….” Bridget said, shifting in her chair slightly.  
“Sounds fun!” Madi added in, eager to join.  
“It sounds like a WalMart trip!” Nora nearly shouted, eyes bright. Madison and Macy laughed as Ash and Nora tried to high five.  
“A WalMart trip would be fun,” Macy said as she shot Bridget a look, almost silently daring her to disagree.  
“I’m down for a trip to WalMart. Nachos would be a fun thing to make together, too,” Rachael agreed.  
“Great! We should probably go as soon as possible; I’ll drive if that stupid van or the Entity lets me,” Ash exclaimed, pushing her palms against the bottom of her chin.

(TW START)  
“Well, we need to clean up first, Ash,” Macy scolded, standing up with her own clean plate. “And you need to eat a little bit more, you’ve barely touched your hot dogs.”  
“Respectfully, no. I’ll eat more at dinner, though. Promise.”  
“I’m holding you to that. Otherwise I’m not going to let you play My Chem tonight.”  
“That’s a fair deal.”  
(TW END)

“Great! Everyone go wash your dishes and put them in the dishwasher quickly, I want to go as soon as physically possible!” Nora said, clapping her hands together twice before skipping off to the kitchen with her dishes. Everyone followed suit and soon enough, they were all walking out to the van.  
The red paint had disappeared from the side, which no one really found odd except for Madison. Bridget had taken over as driver, but Ash was more than happy to sit in the back with everyone else. She did, however, take over the sound systems in the van and played Fall Out Boy, which Madison only realized once My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark started playing and everyone started singing along.  
It was a fun car ride, full of talking and singing and horrible band references and the usual gibberish that Madison never really understood, but enjoyed nonetheless. Had it not been for the seatbelts, though, Madi was fairly certain that Cailey would have climbed over a seat to slap her older sister for making the same “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs” and “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” jokes several times in a row.  
This was their first time being out of the house since their kidnapping, so even the girls that get really carsick were enjoying themselves as they rode into a vaguely familiar town, searching for a WalMart nearby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CREDITS GIVEN WHERE CREDIT IS DUE:
> 
> Me and Jo saw the nacho thing somewhere on Instagram but I’m not sure where so credit to whoever came up with that genius idea.  
> “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark” is a song by Fall Out Boy  
> “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs” is a song by Fall Out Boy (I can explain why the title has no vowels if anyone is curious)  
> “I’m Not Okay (I Promise) is a song by My Chemical Romance
> 
> quick edit by Jo: we are starting school tomorrow but we will hopefully still be able to upload every Monday! keeping our fingers crossed!


	8. Brilliant Ideas And Loud Singing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yooo.... okay I know this is two days late but I have an alibi. School started last week for us and it’s been a little rough on me- I fully intended to have this finished and up on Monday but I got stressed and couldn’t do anything after school, and yesterday I had to study for my Algebra test today so I didn’t have time then, but here it is now!!!
> 
> Anyway, I think that we are going to switch to every two weeks on Monday to make it easier on both of us until further notice, but we still may post every Monday, just depending on how much time we end up having.
> 
> Now that that’s out of the way, here’s my chapter! I used an incorrect quote that I got from one my my favorite accounts on Instagram, @/incorrentf0b  
> It’s seriously an amazing account, please go check it out if you’re able!

It didn’t take very long to find a WalMart, but once they had gotten into the town, Ash kept zoning out, staring off into space or at clouds, zoning back in to add something ridiculous to the conversation going on around her.  
“Hey, look!” Cailey shouted loudly in her ear, scaring Ashley so bad she hit her forehead on the window. “There’s a WalMart!”  
They pulled into the parking lot of the WalMart and walked in, going over what they needed for their nacho night. As they walked in, however, Mace pulled her phone out of her bag and pulled an app up before letting her phone, still turned on, drop to her side.  
And so the eight girls walked through the store, pushing a cart that was quickly filling up with stuff as Ash and Mace struggled to keep up with the group as they looked ingredients up online. During lulls between finding stuff, the girls posed as Mace took pictures and laughed when they came out crappy.  
After half an hour of shopping together, they decided to split into two groups so they could find things more efficiently. The groups were Bridget, Madison, Cailey, and Macy and Rachael, Nora, Ashley, and Joanna. They decided that one allergy girl needed to go with each group and unanimously decided that Bridget and Rachael were the most responsible so one of them went with each group.  
Ash and Jo walked slightly ahead of the rest of their group and Rachael pushed the cart behind them while going over the list of things they needed with Nora, who seemed to be enjoying herself greatly.  
“Hey, Jo, we forgot to grab chips, can you run back and grab some?” Rachael called up to the pair. “Ash you should probably go with her, too.”  
“Why do you have such little faith in me?” Jo remarked, faking being hurt.  
“Yeah, she’s a big girl! She can go on her own!”  
“Hmm… ok.” With that, Jo skipped off out of sight, leaving the other three chuckling behind her.  
The group went back to shopping, slowly making their way through the aisles, gathering stuff for dinner and for snacks. Joanna still hadn’t shown up after around ten minutes, and the trio started to get worried. Ash pulled out her phone to text her sister about it, but Cailey said that Jo wasn’t with them, either.  
“So, we lost Joanna…” Rachael said, sighing.  
“Yeah. This could be potentially catastrophic,” Nora added, recoiling slightly.  
“Yeah. Let’s go see if we can say something over the intercom?” Ash pitched out, surprised when Rachael agreed with her.  
So, they pushed their cart up to the front and Ash asked a worker if they could say something over the intercom, since they had lost their friend somewhere in the store.  
They agreed and Ash stepped up and Rachael looked slightly uneasy as Ash spoke.  
“Joanna,” she started, smirking. “Goodbye you little s-”  
Nora started laughing before Ashley could even finish her sentence (which she most definitely had) and quickly tried to stifle it with her hand when Rachael pressed her hand to her face. The worker seemed to get a good kick out of this too, then said that the language was fine since the store was pretty much empty anyways.  
“You shouldn’t cuss like that in public, Ash, we’ve been over this,” Rachael remarked once the microphone had been put up.  
“We have. I just ignored your advice, though it was greatly appreciated. Come on, it was funny!”  
“I won’t disagree.”  
Ash and Nora high fived, taking their win by making Rachael admit that she enjoyed the moment.  
After around thirty seconds, Jo comes running up to the front, face red from laughing and holding two bags of chips.  
“I am not that bad, that was uncalled for!” she wheezed, contradicting her own statement a little bit.  
“Yes you are, but that’s okay, it was great.”  
“Yes!”  
“Anyway, I think we got everything we said we would, so why don’t you text Cails, Ash, and we can go check out and get started on dinner, it’s getting late,” Rachael said to Ash, taking the bags from Jo and visibly fighting a smile. The other three girls started laughing again, but quickly calmed down as Ash pulled her phone out to text her sister again.  
The two groups met back up and checked out their groceries, piling their bags back into the two carts and pushing them out to the van.  
The car ride home seemed a lot shorter than the ride into town, they sang songs from a playlist Jo had made several years beforehand, consisting of songs that everyone enjoyed. They all laughed and joked around when someone got the words messed up, but were told to be more quiet by Rachael so they wouldn’t wreck the car.  
They quickly unpacked everything when they got home and all eight girls washed their hands before starting on their own tasks. Ash and Jo cut vegetables and put them in bowls, Cailey browned the meat, Bridget and Macy wrapped the table in aluminum foil, Rachael taped the bottom and set out soda and chips. Madison put the hard shells in the oven and set out the soft shells once the table had been properly wrapped and Nora seasoned the meat and set sweets and such out.  
Ash and Jo sang off key to a few songs off of Stomachaches by Frank Iero and the Cellebration, though you could barely tell since Frank himself sounded off key a bit, then they went on to sing Hamilton and SIX songs, greatly annoying everyone else by jumbling up the words and talking over the music.  
Once everything had been cooked and set out, they threw the meat and taco sauce onto the middle of the table, towards the right, and put the veggies and cheese and stuff on the other in separate piles on the other side to accommodate the various allergies, intolerances, and general dislikes. They all ate standing up and laughed when food got on someone’s shirt or pants before handing her napkins to wipe it up.  
For the first big meal they all cooked together, it went pretty smoothly. The group talked and ate for about an hour before they piled the leftovers into Tupperware boxes and put them in the fridge as Rachael and Bridget carefully unwrapped the table and threw the foil away.  
“So what should we do now?” Ash asked, leaning against the counter.  
“We should do a movie night!” Nora responded, eyes lit up with excitement.  
“Ooooh yes! That’d be so much fun!” Madi chimed from the pantry where she was putting the tortillas back.  
“Well, what should we all watch?” Bridget asked.  
“Moana,” Cailey suggested, shrugging.  
“Sounds good to me,” Ash responded and everyone else chorused their agreement.  
“Alrighty then! Everyone go change and grab some blankets we’re having a movie night sleepover!” Jo yelled just a smidge too loudly, ushering everyone out of the kitchen. They all laugh and sprint to their respective rooms to change.  
Once they were done, all eight girls met in the third floor sitting room, laying out their blankets and pillows and they laid down halfway on top of the others and the movie played, and they all eventually fell asleep before the movie had ended, completely worn out from the long, exciting day they had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CREDITS GIVEN WHERE CREDIT IS DUE
> 
> “Goodbye you little s-” This is the quote from incorrectf0b, it’s not exact because we’re trying to keep this family-friendly and that includes cusses so I improvised *finger guns*  
> The playlist I talked about during the car ride home does exist, and is not mine, nor are the Frnkiero andthe Cellebration (i edited the band name to make it easier to understand. This short man is crazy XD), nor songs from Hamilton or SIX  
> Moana is not my movie nor do I claim that it’s my creation
> 
> Hey, Jo here with a quick little edit, i’m linking the playlist here so you can go listen to it (it’s literally a condensed version of the insanity we listen to)  
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2BClqHlj8iN6fAk1EmJ85e?si=E-4DkC25TKetAFRTHxxE5w  
> Enjoy!


	9. Dance Parties ft. Screaming the Backstreet Boys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, it’s Jo back with another chapter! Enjoy the screaming and chaos, and I ~should~ have the next chapter out by next Monday (don’t quote me on that, though).  
> Also go follow me on Instagram @jo_from_camp or on Snapchat @joannam423

Jo was going about her business, which was mostly annoying people by playing the same three songs on the piano, until she was struck by an idea. The day had been fairly uneventful up until then, and it was high time for chaos to strike. The other girls had been upstairs in their rooms, having retreated when Jo sat herself down at the piano. She made her way over to the bottom of the stairs leading to the second floor and took a breath.

“TELL ME WHY!” she screamed, not even vaguely in tune.

What followed was a terribly discordant “ain’t nothing but a heartache,” as the other girls could not decide on a key. With almost, if not all of the house being involved in theatre to some extent, one would think that they would be able to get close to singing in the right key. In that situation, one would be wrong. 

Jo ran up the stairs. “You guys, that sucked,” she stated bluntly.

“Wow, thanks, love you too,” Cailey called sarcastically from her room, where she was bouncing a ball against the wall.

“Am I wrong?”

“No, not at all,” Ash agreed, seemingly coming out of nowhere. “I didn’t even sing along ‘cause I knew it would sound so bad.”

“Besides, you nincompoop,” Jo said to Cailey, “we all know I’m your favorite.”

“Rude!” Madi yelled, while Ash made an offended face. Everyone knew that it was fake, though.

“Alright then, you heartless spuds. I’ll be hanging upside down off my bed if you need me.” Jo skipped into her room.

“If you fall and fracture your skull, I’m not taking you to the hospital!” Rachael threatened.

“Okay. I’ll just get Ash to take me.” Jo marched off to her room, shut the door, and connected her phone to a Bluetooth speaker. She hit shuffle on her Broadway playlist, creatively titled “showtunes.” The first song that came on was “Haus of Holbein” from SIX. Seeing this, Jo decided to forgo her previous plans to hang upside down and put her phone down before beginning to dance. For this song, she had discovered the choreography for “Hygge” from her junior high production of Frozen Jr.

About halfway through the two-minute song, the door flew open, just as Jo was screaming “IN ZE HAUS OF HOLBEIN!” and jumping back into the dance.

“What are you doing?” Cailey asked, mildly exasperated by the noise.

“Dance party,” Jo explained breathlessly. “Care to join?”

“Sure. And is that…”

“Hygge? Ooh, ja!” Not only had she answered Cailey’s question, but she was singing along to the music. It was just timed that perfectly. “Das ist gut, ooh, ja!” Cailey followed Jo’s moves perfectly, not missing a beat.

Macy walked past the room, doing a double take through the open door. “What’re you guys doing?” she asked, then quickly added, “Looks like fun!”

“VE MUST MAKE SURE ZE PRINCESSES LOOK GREAT!” the two screamed.

Macy ran into the room, yelling, “VEN ZEIR TIME COMES FOR ZEIR HOLBEIN PORTRAIT!”

Ash must have sensed music and chaos, because she appeared out of nowhere. “Ve know vat all ze best inventions are to hold everything up-” she sang with an eyebrow wiggles.

“ _ Ja,  _ it’s  _ wunderbar _ ,” Jo continued. The song went on, with Rachael poking her head in to tell the girls that she “cannot guarantee” that they’ll “still walk at forty.” 

When the intro for the next song came on, Jo paused it and leaned out of the doorway to yell, “Guys, it’s Six! We need two more! I call Boleyn!” She ran back into her room, Madison and Nora not far behind. The girls called dibs on their favorite queens quickly, so Jo could unpause the song. Jo had always bragged that she knew the original choreography for part of the song (it really wasn't that hard, she was pretty sure a three-year-old could learn it) and had taught it to the group during a previous dance party. She had also made up a dance about three years ago and somehow still remembered it. Jo stood at the back of the room until it was her turn to sing, when she shoved through the small crowd and sang her verse before disappearing again so Macy could have her turn as Jane Seymour.

When the song came to the chorus, Jo was back at the front of the pack, leading the dance. Some of the girls knew it better than others, but they managed to stay together relatively well. Later, they would learn that Rachael had recorded the whole song. The dance party continued until they reached the end of Jo’s playlist, causing them to miss lunch. They didn’t mind, though.

“So guys,” Jo said that night at dinner, “I have a proposal.”

“Being..?” Rachael prompted.

“You all know Corner Time with Anna?”

“How could we not?” Madi asked. Corner Time was a podcast that a friend of the group had started about a year ago. It was also the favorite of the group, and they had binge-listened to it in two days to catch Nora up. They hadn’t slept, but it was a small price to pay for the comedy of re-listening to Corner Time. 

“What’s the point of asking?” Ash wondered. “You know we know what you’re talking about.”

“Anyway,” Jo continued, paying Ash no mind, “I was thinking that we should start a podcast.”

Cailey’s eyes lit up at the thought. “The Oaken podcast?” Jo considered the idea, which she had voiced to Cailey and Madi three years ago at a rehearsal for their school musical, Frozen, before it had gotten cancelled due to coronavirus. 

“Well, not necessarily,” Jo finally answered. “I’m not sure I still have the accent.”

“Try it!” Ash said, prompting the whole table, save for Bridget, to start chanting, “Try it! Try it! Try it!”

“Okay, okay!” Jo threw her hands up in the air, then cleared her throat. “Yoo-hoo! Big summer blowout!” she said, in the accent, after much deliberation. The table erupted into applause.

“How do you do it?” Nora asked. Jo sighed. 

“A lot of German, some Canadian, and a bit of Scottish,” said Jo, Cailey, and Madi in perfect unison. Jo had explained this to the other seven time and time again and was quite honestly getting tired of repeating it. 

“Still, I’m not a fan of using it regularly.” Cailey rolled her eyes at this statement. 

“What would you rather do, Jo?” Macy asked, hoping to relieve the tension between the two.

“I was thinking a podcast chronicling our chaotic adventures. Who’s in?”

“Me!” Ash said almost immediately.

“Sounds like fun,” Madi agreed. Everyone else chorused their approval, except Cailey, who earned a few dirty looks. 

“Ugh, fine.” Cailey gave in after only a couple minutes of uncomfortable silence.

“I promise, I’ll do my Oaken accent from time to time.”

Ash hopped up from the table, not noticing that the others hadn’t finished their dinner yet. “When are we gonna start?”

Jo held up a finger as she finished chewing a mouthful of chicken. “Friday.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CREDIT:  
> “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys  
> “Haus of Holbein” and “Six” by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss  
> “Hygge” choreography by Ilenia  
> “Corner Time with Anna” used with permission from Anna  
> Pretty sure that’s everything!


	10. Family Bonding™ and... Wigs?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hi, hello, welcome back to the wheat field. I really don’t have anything to say about this chapter, so... enjoy!

“Y’know, guys,” Madison said as she munched on some cereal the next morning, “we’re practically a family by now.”

“Kid’s got a point,” Jo agreed.

“How  _ exactly  _ are we a family?” Rachael questioned.

“Ok, I got this,” Ash said with an enthusiastic wave of her hands. “So. Rachael is the mom, ‘cause she makes sure we don’t kill each other. Mace is kinda like the fun aunt. Bridget is probably the one aunt that’s always a little cranky, Nora is our cousin, me and Jo are the chaotic older sisters, and Madi is the cute little sister.”   
“What about me?” Cailey pouted, feeling left out.

“You’re the dog. One of the little yappy ones that's always way too hyper.” Cailey gasped, taking offense to that statement.

“Alright then,” Rachael butted in, mostly to keep Cailey from slapping someone at 10 AM. “So we’re a family. I guess as the mother of this family, I declare today a Family Bonding Day™.”

“Everyone stay here! I have a plan,” Jo said. Everybody watched as she got up from the table and attempted to sprint across the bottom floor to the stairs, nearly breaking her neck since she was wearing socks without shoes. (who even does that?) She came back about five minutes later, grasping a hairbrush and what seemed to be about fifty hair ties.

“Dear God, Jo, what the actual heck?” Ash questioned.

“One second,” Jo replied. Madison watched with awe as she expertly tied her hair up into two small buns.

“Space buns!” Cailey squealed.

“Okay, wait. Does anyone else know how to do them or do I just need to do everyone’s?” Jo asked. There was a collective mumble of confusion. “Alright, new plan. Raise your hand if you know how to do space buns.” Ash and Cailey raised their hands. “Okay, can you guys do other people’s hair or just your own?”

“I can’t do my own, and she can only do her own,” Ash replied.

“Seems reasonable. Alright, I’ll start with Ash and then she can help me with everyone else’s.” The two moved quickly, putting everyone’s hair into Jo’s signature hairstyle. They tugged a bit too hard on Madi’s hair, but she didn’t mind very much.

“Okay, we’ve got the matching hairstyles. Now what?” Rachael inquired.

“Walmart trip!” Nora cheered, already on her way to the van. Jo nearly forgot her phone but was reminded to grab it when Ash said something about music, since it was Jo’s turn to provide the playlist for the car trip. Everyone else followed after putting the breakfast dishes in the sink, knowing that they wouldn’t get washed until late that night. 

In the van, nobody objected when Jo turned on her Broadway playlist. The first song up was “No Me Diga” from In the Heights. The girls sang at the top of their lungs, earning a few looks from Rachael and Bridget at the more *ahem* suggestive parts of the song. 

By the time the crew got to Walmart, they had sung songs from at least seven different musicals. They were still singing and dancing as they walked into the store, this time “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls. 

“Alright, children,” Rachael announced. “Two carts, same groups as last time. Got it?” Everyone murmured their agreements. “Okay. My group, where are we going first?”

“To the hair dye!” Nora shouted, taking the cart from Rachael.

“Hold on.” Rachael grabbed Nora by the wrist. “You guys are not buying hair dye on my watch.”

“Fine, we’ll buy it on Macy’s watch,” Ash reasoned.

“Heck yes! I wanna dye my hair!” Macy yelled, running from where her group was near the produce section.

Rachael rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she sighed, “I’ll switch teams.” Rachael walked over to the “sane” team and helped pick out fruit. 

A huge clatter and a scream forced Macy to look up from the boxes of teal hair dye. Ash and Joanna had somehow managed to knock over multiple bottles of shampoo, which promptly fell on their heads. 

Macy turned to Nora. “When you’re done, can you take them over to the craft aisle or something?” she asked. “I don’t want to have to clean up a mess.”

“Yeah, sure,” Nora replied, throwing a box of blue dye into the cart. “C’mon you two. Let’s go find the others.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Macy called after them, but it was too late.

Somehow they managed to make it out of Walmart without causing another incident (except for the exploded gallon of milk in the refrigerated section, but we don’t speak of that). The minute the group returned home, Ash, Jo, Macy, and Nora sprinted up all the stairs to Ash’s bathroom. Ash grabbed a pair of scissors off of the top of her dresser before retreating into the bathroom and closing the door. She took the hairties out of her space buns and picked up a comb, sectioning her hair into four parts and tying them into ponytails on top of her hair.

“Ash, what are you doing?” Nora questioned.

“Getting rid of this hair,” Ash answered. “It’s high time I cut it off.” She grasped a section of hair in her left hand and held it above her head, wrapping it around her hand. Jo helped her position the scissors so she didn’t accidentally cut herself. She closed her eyes and snipped, not hesitating for a split second. She glanced at the hair in her hand before throwing it onto the bathroom counter and grabbing the next ponytail. She repeated the process until all four ponytails were laying on the counter.

“I like this so much better,” Ash said, running her hands through her hair. 

“It’s cute!” Macy agreed.

“Ash, hold your head still. Your hair’s gonna be even more uneven if you keep moving,” Jo interjected, trying to trim some of the jagged edges.

“You’re probably not the best one to be cutting my hair,” Ash stated. “I can see your hands shaking.” 

“It’ll be fine,” Jo replied. “Just hold still.”

Nora slid off of the counter. “Well, while you guys are doing that, I’m gonna go ahead and start bleaching my hair.”

“I can help,” Macy chimed in, putting on some disposable gloves. “Are you doing your whole head?”   
“Yeah. What’re you doing?”

“I’m just doing the tips. Jo, Ash, how about you?”

“Uhh, I think I’m gonna do the ends with a couple of full strands in the front,” Jo explained, setting down the scissors.

“I’m doing my whole head.” Ash grabbed the purple dye and looked at the instructions on the back.

“Pass me the bleach,” Jo said. Macy tossed a bottle of the stuff to her, along with a pair of disposable gloves. The four worked for a couple of hours, stopping once for snacks while the bleach sat in Jo and Nora’s hair. 

When the four girls went downstairs after dyeing their hair, the reactions of the others were fairly positive. Well, except for Cailey’s, that is. Upon seeing Ash’s shorter hair, she screamed.

“ **What** did you  **do** to your hair?” she shrieked.

“Oh, do you like it?” Ash replied, brushing some hair out of her eyes.

“No-” Cailey tried.

“Yes,” Rachael quickly cut her off. “Your color choices are fabulous, by the way. Love the pink.”

“Thanks,” Jo said, twirling a pink strand around one of her fingers.

“Okay, call me stupid, but I’ve come to a realization…” Nora said. “What if we go out somewhere, like to a restaurant? What are the two of us that dyed our whole heads going to do?”

Rachael hesitated. During the time it took her to think of an answer, Madi piped up. “Wigs!” she exclaimed.

Nora pulled out her phone to look on Amazon for cheap wigs. After a bit of scrolling, she said, “Guys, I can get a decent-looking wig for less than 20 bucks.”

“Lemme see that,” Ash told her. Nora handed over the phone, pointing to the wig in concern. Ash nodded her head in approval. “Not bad, not bad. But I think I can do better.” Ash scrolled to another wig, this one just over thirty dollars. It was a shoulder length, auburn-colored one. “See? So much better.”

“I don’t know, I think I like mine best.”

“Alright, you two,” Macy cut in. “I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere fancy in the near future. You’ll have plenty of time to pick your wigs.”

“Macy’s right,” Rachael agreed. “And dinner needs to be started soon. Cailey, Madi, I think it’s your turn, but anyone who wants to help is exempt from doing the dishes. No more than five people can cook, though.”

At that, everyone scrambled to the kitchen, eager to be one of the first few in order to get out of dish duty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, hope you enjoyed, and Ash will see you all in a week or two!
> 
> CREDIT GIVEN WHERE CREDIT IS DUE:
> 
> “No Me Diga” from In the Heights by Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda 
> 
> “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls


	11. Late Night Thunderstorms And Crowded Rooms

“Psst. Ash,” Cailey said as she poked her head into her sister’s room. She was vaguely surprised to find her still awake with her drawing glove on and iPad in her lap, but then remembered that this was a somewhat normal occurrence at their house.   
“What?” Ash responded over the rolling thunder, clicking something on her phone which lay beside her.   
“Um, can we stay here for a bit?” Madi shoved Cailey forward a little bit and waved at the older girl.  
“Sure, come on,” Ash said, scooting over as Cailey and Madi climb onto her bed and sit next to her, hugging their blankets around their shoulders. “You get to listen to my music, though. No complaining.”  
“Deal.”  
Ash unpaused her music, letting, in Cailey’s opinion, horrible music spill through the phone’s speakers softly, even though it was basically just screaming and uncleans. It was nice though, Cailey thought it fit the mood of the thunderstorm outside and the dim lighting from two candles that flickered from across the room, casting dancing shadows across the clutter. Cailey wrinkled her nose at that thought. Everything around her screamed “ASHLEY” and it was unsettling. Way too depressing for her taste.  
Lightning flashed violently, followed closely by deafening thunder, causing Cailey to whimper and pull the blanket closer to her. She could practically hear her sister grinning. The lights in the sitting room on the other side of Ash’s door flickered. Cailey and Madison both tensed even more. Ash laughed.  
“Power’s gonna go out!” she squealed, far more excited than the other two, who grew more fearful by the minute.   
A few seconds later, Jo, Nora, and Macy popped their heads into Ash’s room, grinning from ear to ear.  
“STORM TIME!” Ash and Jo exclaimed a little louder than necessary when they saw each other, then fell into a fit of laughter as Ash beckoned the trio over to sit on her bed with them. It was crowded, so everyone was pretty much hugging each other or leaning against someone.  
They all talked for a few minutes, conversations overlapping as Cailey and Madi desperately talking about YouTube and TikTok and the rest talked about music and books and the like. It was somewhat relaxing until there was another bright strike of lightning and the power shut off. Ash, Jo, and Macy all started laughing loudly, a mixture of snorting and wheezing, which resulted in Nora getting pushed off the edge before joining in. The two younger girls, however, were holding tightly to the other’s arms and yelling about turning on a light.  
“No way! The dark is cool!” Macy started, sticking her tongue out.  
“No it’s not, there could be demons!” Madi interjected.  
“Y’all live with me and Jo,” Ash began, jabbing her thumb at her friend, “so demons are the least of your troubles.”  
“Hey girls,” someone whispered from the doorway.  
“HEY BRIDGET!” Jo shouted.  
“LONG TIME, NO SEE,” her purple haired friend added, throwing a pillow.  
“Are you guys all okay?” Rachael said, walking into the room after Bridget, looking concerned.  
“Four of us are, two of us, not so much,” Nora responded, looking around. The girls in the entryway rolled their eyes and came to sit on the edge of the over crowded bed, trying to console the youngest girls while Ash got up to light a candle.  
Eventually the lights came back on and everyone grew tired, so they all grabbed blankets and pillows from the rooms closest, and they cuddled up on the couch by Ash’s room and fell asleep to Ed Sheeran’s music, which Macy had playing on shuffle on her phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pshh. Incredibly short chapter, I know. And a few hours later than usual. I wish I had a good excuse for this crappy chapter but I don’t have anything. I might put another chapter up next week to make up for it <3


	12. Fourth of July: What Could Go Wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi it’s jo back at it after a solid week of getting nothing done for this story. enjoy!

Nora woke with a start when she heard her and Jo’s alarm go off. Today it was set to the opening bars of “Guns and Ships” from Hamilton (they totally would’ve used “Alexander Hamilton,” but Rachael wouldn’t let them). She stood up, grabbed a pillow, and seeing that her roommate was still asleep, smacked Jo in the face with the pillow.

“You bi-  _ booger _ ,” Jo groaned, still half asleep. “Totally meant booger,” she added quickly.

“Yep, uh-huh, sure you did,” Nora joked.

“Shut your trap, Rachael’s gonna let me have it if she hears this.”

“Alright,  _ buddy _ , but don’t forget we get to pick the music today.” The group had decided on a schedule for who got to pick the music to play on the speakers strategically placed throughout the house. 

“It’s Hamilton day, isn’t it?” the younger of the two asked.

“Why else would we have ‘Guns and Ships’ as our alarm?”

“You have a point,” Jo agreed. She threw herself over the edge of the bed, landing on the floor with a loud  _ thud  _ that made Nora flinch. “I’m getting tea, care to come?” the pink-haired girl asked in an absolutely atrocious accent that could’ve been either British or Australian.

“I need to make some lemon water. I’m chilling in the studio today if you wanna come do some instrumental stuff.”

Jo perked up. “What’re you recording?”

“I’ve been working on an original song, but it’s not quite done. I need a little bit of help finishing the melody and figuring out chords.”

“My musical genius never rests,” Jo remarked jokingly. “Really, though, I’d be happy to help, but I won’t do it for free.”

“I’m not paying you.”

“‘Course you’re not. You’re just doing our chores by yourself for the next two weeks.”

Nora sighed. “Fine. It’s a deal.”

“Yippee!” Jo squealed. “I’m still making tea first.”

As soon as the two stepped into the music room, Rachael called, “Don’t be too long, we’re going out for dinner before we do 4th of July stuff.”

“Sh- _ oot _ ,” Jo grumbled, “I forgot that was today.”

“You really are just hitting them all today, aren’t you?”

“I told you to shut up,” she retorted, sitting down at the piano. “Gimme a sec to warm up.” Nora nodded, and Jo played a few scales (two octaves, because why the heck not) before turning back to her blue-haired friend, who handed her a notebook. The two worked on the song for a couple hours until they heard a familiar theme song.

“Is that…” Nora began.

“I think it is,” Jo answered. They walked out to the living room, and, sure enough, Phineas and Ferb was playing on the TV in the living room. Now, Phineas and Ferb had been banned in the house by Bridget because it apparently gave the more chaotic girls “too many ideas.” 

_ “Ideas for what?” Cailey asked when Bridget first made the declaration. _

_ “Destruction, probably,” Ash guessed. _

_ “Ding, ding, ding!” Bridget said. “Ten points to Slytherin.” _

“Where’s Bridget?” Nora asked, sitting down on the couch.

“Out,” Rachael said from the kitchen, where she was grabbing chips and sodas.

“Out where?” Jo pressed, like the three-year-old she was.

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Cailey stated rather bluntly. “We can do whatever the heck we want since she’s gone.”

“You said it, sister!” Madi exclaimed, high-fiving her best friend.

“You mean, ‘you said it,  _ dog _ ,’” Jo corrected.

“Not this again,” Rachael groaned.

“Hey, at least we aren’t calling you Mom!” Madi defended. Ash and Jo gave each other a knowing look.

“Oh, no,” Rachael said to herself, fully understanding what she had gotten into.

“Mom!” Ash shouted. “I want a Pepsi!”

“Mum! The house is too cold!” Jo added.

“Go put on a jacket if you’re cold,” Rachael instructed, completely ignoring Ash’s request.

“But Mum! I’ll get hot if I put on a jacket!”

“Then deal with it!”

“Aunt Rachael!” Nora piped up. “I can’t hear the TV over all the screaming!”

Rachael shrugged. “Then turn it up. I can’t stop them.”

“Aunt Macy!” Ash and Jo screamed together.

Macy came sprinting down the stairs. “What!?”

“Mum won’t help us,” Jo whined.

“Well, what do you guys need?” Macy questioned.

“I want a Pepsi,” Ash said.

“And I’m cold,” Jo pouted.

“I’ll get you one. And for god’s sake, Jo, put on a jacket.”

“That’s what I tried to tell her!” Rachael threw up her hands in exasperation. 

“By the way, Rachael,” Macy started, “if you’re their mother, then who’s the father?”

Rachael went wide-eyed. “We don’t talk about him anymore,” Jo filled in.

“Yep,” Ash added. “It wasn’t a happy marriage, but we were too young to understand at the time. Madi doesn’t even remember him.”

“You girls sure are growing up fast,” Macy remarked, giving Ash a pat on the head. Ash did  _ not _ look pleased.

“Anyway,” Nora butted in, “let’s hurry up and watch this before Bridget gets back.”

“Watch what before Bridget gets back?” a voice asked from the entryway.

“Speak of the devil,” Jo muttered under her breath.

“Nothing!” Cailey and Madison exclaimed.

“We’re not watching anything,” Cailey clarified.

“Nope, definitely not,” Madi added helpfully.

“That’s good,” Bridget replied, already in her room.

“Hey, Mum?” Jo asked. “Would we happen to have any Saran Wrap?”

“In with the tin foil,” Rachael answered. “Why do you ask?”

“Oh… no reason.”

“Mom, where’re we going for dinner?” Madi questioned.

“Olive Garden. Then we’re coming back for some 4th of July stuff.”

“Chaos squad emergency meeting!” Ash called. Nora, Cailey, Jo, and Ash sprinted up the stairs.

“Walmart trip?” Nora asked.

“Walmart trip,” Jo affirmed. 

“And… break!” Cailey said. The four ran back downstairs as quickly as they had gone up and went out to the van. 

“You’re gonna want the card!” Rachael shouted after them. Thankfully, Ash heard her and went back inside. She took the credit card from Rachael with a cheerful “thanks, Mom” and was back out the door.

Once the quartet was at Walmart, they made a beeline for the July 4th display. Ash and Jo grabbed explosives varying from party poppers all the way to real-deal fireworks while Nora and Cailey picked out glow sticks. Not too long into the escapade, Nora’s phone dinged with a message from Rachael asking the group to do a bit of shopping while they were out. Nora responded with a “yeah, sure,” and the group made their way over to the food section. Rachael had given them a few basic necessities to buy and told them to get anything else they wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alrighty guys i have no idea what ash has in store for y’all next chapter but anyway i’m tired so i’m going to sleep


	13. don’t tread on [my back]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we apologize for not posting. head empty no thoughts.

Macy snuck down the stairs, determined to catch Ashley watching an old My Chemical Romance concert on the TV. To her surprise, no one was downstairs, save for Rachael, who had probably been up all night working on a story. Macy retreated up the stairs. She climbed up to the third level, calling for Ashley. She stood outside her friend’s room, it is rather impolite to sneak up on a sleeping person, after all.

The door swung open. Macy had no clue how long she’d been standing there, she must have fallen asleep standing up. Serves her right for getting up at 6. Ash exited her room, her hair a mess (as usual) and wrapped in a blanket. She was also uncharacteristically pale, which did not go unnoticed.

“Hey, you good?” Macy asked.

“Who, me? I’m fine,” Ash replied with a cough.

“You don’t sound fine. Don’t make me get Rachael.”

“I won’t. I told you, I’m fine. I just need some coffee.”

“You are not having coffee,” Macy said firmly. “I’m getting Rachael.”

“Don’t do that!” Ash protested. “She’s probably still asleep.”

“No, she’s downstairs.”

“Mace, c’mon,” she begged, turning to cough again.

“You’re sick, go back to bed. I’ll bring up some grape juice for you, though, if you won’t let me get Rachael.”

“Fine,” Ash reluctantly agreed. Macy turned her back to her room and pushed her back to her unmade bed.

Macy then turned to go down the stairs to get the juice she had promised.

Jo woke up around noon, which was not out of character by this point. She’d fallen into a rhythm of going to bed at five or six in the morning and waking up at about noon.

She swore that she’d fix her sleep schedule, but let’s be honest here: we all know it’s never gonna happen. 

Either way, the house was strangely quiet that morning. Of course, it hadn’t had its daily dose of chaos yet. Jo would fix that. She slid down the banister, which was  _ obviously  _ far from the best choice, seeing as she tumbled off about halfway down. Thankfully, the mysterious force, affectionately called Frederick by the girls, caught her when she fell, leaving her shaken yet unharmed.

“ _ Danke, Friedrich _ ,” Jo said, bowing to the cloud of black mist that had materialized beside her. It seemed to curtsy in return.

She stole into the kitchen, sliding a good majority of the way on the tile floor and nearly killing herself in the process, but she needed her caramel cappuccino, dang it. She slammed full force into a cabinet.

“Shh…” She looked around for others, just in time to see Rachael walk in. “Sugar cookies!” Jo exclaimed. “Just getting into that holiday spirit, you know me!”

Rachael gave her a concerned look. “It’s July. Go back upstairs. It’s too early to deal with you.”

“How about  _ instead _ I go hang out in the music room? You won’t even know I’m down here!”

“Nope. You could go outside-”

Jo cut her off with a hiss. “I’m getting my coffee and going back upstairs, where my presence is appreciated.” She grabbed a mug from the cabinet and a pod for the keurig and made her cappuccino, jumping up on the counter while it brewed. Rachael rolled her eyes and walked out of the room.

When her coffee was done, Jo grabbed the mug and went back up the stairs to her room. She sat the mug on a table to cool and grabbed her phone and a speaker, setting them up in the second floor common room.

She scrolled through Spotify for a little while before finding her favorite nostalgia playlist. She turned the volume up all the way and started dancing, throwing in poor attempts at various tumbling moves.

Madison walked in after her try at a backflip off of the couch, which caused her to land flat on her back and nearly concuss herself.

“You good down there?” Madison asked.

“Absolutely not,” Jo replied. Madi shrugged and walked away.

Since she had been left on the ground, Jo decided to flip over and attempt to crawl to her room. The rolling over was the easy part.

The crawling was not, on account of all the slick floors.

So, as any completely normal teenage girl would, she decided to slither like a snake. While screaming the words to “Dead Mom” from Beetlejuice. Completely normal.

Cue Cailey.

“What the actual heck are you doing?”

“Going to my room,” Jo replied. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“I could step on your back,” Cailey threatened.

“I could get someone to carry you outside and lock the doors.”

Cailey thought for a moment. “I could kick and scream.”

Jo made a face. “You win this time. But please don’t step on my back.”

Cailey did not step on Jo’s back. 

Crisis averted.

Of course, that was far from all of the chaos the Haus of Insanity experienced that day, but all the AO3 chapters in the world wouldn’t be able to contain the craziness that went on within the walls of the house while Ash was sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayo so we’re gonna be out of school for christmas after next tuesday (week from tomorrow) so hopefully we can do some decent writing.


End file.
